Anais Thought

There are two writers that I repeatedly hook together. When I think of one, I think of the other. Nin and Rand. I've not read either, so whether there's a subconscious reason for this pairing is still to be deciphered.

Yes, you read right. I've read neither. I'm not really sure why. Ok, I'm sort of theorizing about Rand, and they are reasons that are completely illogical and founded in emotive ties. We'll get to that another day. As for Nin, I've only peripherally heard of her persona more than about her writing, and I think I'm responding to the hesitation to jump on the bandwagon.

When I take on a famous writer, I want to be sure that the opinion that I eventually form is independent of others' and that I'm actually open minded enough to ensure that I'm going to absorb the writing in the spirit in which it was written. I tend to want to "side" with the writer. A certain premeditated empathy of the "benefit of the doubt" approach. I want to like the writing, but I want to like it for my own reasons.

I don't know much about Nin, but the quote:
"I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman."

...very much appeals to my thinking. Not that I have a man. So we have here a bit of a contradiction. IF I were to have a man, this is the kind of self-assuredness with which I would approach choosing him. The irony being that I'm currently about as little self assured as I've ever been, and I don't have the vaguest interest in a man.

So, really, the quote is the mother of all hypotheticals.